Russian granny knocked off feet with one blow by customer at supermarket
A harrowing video of a man punching an old woman in face at a supermarket in the Russian city of Syzran has prompted a quick reaction from an Investigative Committee. The woman was decked with one blow and is said to have suffered an injury to the jaw.
The incident took place at a till at Pyaterochka, a popular Russian supermarket chain, in the Samara Region of southern Russia on September 4.
Nina Tulupova, 61, was standing in line and laying out her purchases at check out when a young man in front of her, having paid for his groceries, suddenly hammered the woman in the jaw and left, the video shows. The clip finishes with the cashier going to help the woman, who is lying on the floor, as shocked shoppers watch the man go out.
“I have never seen this man before and I do not know now who he is… I took everything out of the basket and put it on the counter, put the basket to the right of him – and suddenly found myself on the floor,” Tulupova told the LifeNews tabloid.
YouTube viewers commenting on the video supposed the woman was standing too close to the man or had said something to him, but agreed, in general, that the punch was a total overreaction.
The woman was diagnosed with trauma to the jaw and suffered a hematoma to the head. She said that she hadn’t called an ambulance until she got home and hadn’t called the police.
The incident attracted public attention a week later when the video was leaked on the Internet. Police have initiated a criminal case under a law on “Beatings.”
The Investigation Committee said it was going to conduct a comprehensive inquiry. It also wants to investigate the supermarket’s administration which failed to provide security, as well as police officers who failed to immediately initiate a criminal case.
“What else can we do?” tweeted Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin.
On Sunday, police initially said the attacker was one Vladimir Konovalov, 27, but gave no further details about the suspect, who was put onto the wanted list.
However, Lifenews later reported the Konolvalov had been mistaken for the actual perpetrator, who turned out to be a Vitaly Kondratenko, 37. Kondratenko has now been arrested.
This is not the first incident involving old women in Russian supermarkets. On February 3, an 81-year-old woman, who was a survivor of the Leningrad Blockade during World War II, was arrested at a Magnit supermarket in St. Petersburg for allegedly stealing $4 worth of butter. She was taken to a police station where she later died of a heart attack.
